More Than A Gemstone (Kaishin)

Pressing On

Trigger warning of murder

Kaito slowly moved back from peering over the desk, reaching out to take Aoko's hand. She let him- too worried herself.
"Aoko I'm gonna be real with you, I don't really think we should be going in there." Kaito softly began but the girl cut him off immediately.
"Kaito my father's in there...! Who knows if he is even d-doing fine, I-... I need to know. I need to go."

Kaito stared at her for a hot second. She wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Aoko, this is no fucking joke. This is something an entire police station couldn't handle, people who were trained for such situations."
His grip on her hand tightened a little. Kaito was not going to let her go in there.
"We should try to reach someone from outside."
"Well, who then?! Division 2 is out of commission and Division 1 isn't answering."
"Hakuba's a detective... and Kudo too. They know how to handle a firearm, and they've worked on quite a few cases with people at risk."
Aoko pulled her arm away from Kaito before crossing both of hers.
"Kudo ain't answering if you already forgot, and you really want to drag Hakuba into this? Kaito, I'm firearm trained. Tou-san taught me how to use a firearm. I'm good. I'm not some weak little girl, Kaito, I can protect myself."

Kaito let out a deep and desperate sigh.
"Well, you got a gun?"
Aoko deflated a little. "...Not... exactly."

Silence.

Finally, Kaito lost a bit of his tension.
"...fine. Okay. We'll go in there. But we need to make sure we protect Pandora. He's... able to save us if it gets difficult and I expect it to be."
Aoko nodded sternly, taking Pandora's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze.
"I'm ready."
"Have some of those, too. Smoke bombs."
Kaito slid a few smoke bombs into her pocket and she took a small glympse at them. Finally, they took a deep breath- gathering their last bits of courage- before pressing on.

The stench of blood was overpowering.

Kaito lifted his shirt over his nose, grimacing. His thoughts were running wild, what could have possibly caused this?
And why did this seem to familiar to him?
Where had he seen this?

Or... not seen, but heard about it?

Past offices and cubicles, a few dead bodies of policemen around, various kinds of different wounds over their corpses. The soft buzzing of the neon lights lining the ceiling was all that was audible within this hellish place, and the rooms which had held so much comfort for Aoko in her childhood years were now causing her to go green around the nose.
"...listen for anything, what caused this might still be around..." Kaito murmured, on edge. He could feel Aoko tensing next to him and he knew, she understood him.

Pandora seemed weirdly unfazed by all of this. Almost as if he had already seen this, almost as if this was normal to him. Like a child who has just been told his parents had passed, a child who had not yet processed this information, who could just stare glassy eyed and watch surroundings go past in slow motion.
And the worst thing about this, the further they stepped, the more the trio lost hope to find anybody remaining inside this building.

***

It was moving on autopilot.

As if someone else was puppeting his body, and he was just slowly processing emotions and surroundings.

But he felt good.

Powerful, unstoppable.

And then, there was a voice.

He couldn't quite understand it but it seemed to approach him, to come closer and closer.

It wasn't as clear as the voice that had rung inside his mind.

Not as gentle as the pretty chime of that other voice.

It was different and yet, he couldn't quite place it.
Why was it so hard to focus? Why did he have so much trouble thinking just one full thought without trailing off?

"...u... Ha...ba..."

And suddenly, there was a piercing pain in his head.

Slamming onto the ground; the rough impact of his skull on wellused carpet did knock some sense into his mind.

"Ha...ba...!! Hakuba!!"

His eyes slowly refocused, and Hakuba could make out a group of three people standing over him, one crouched with a hand outstretched that had just delivered the world's most painful slap across his cheek he had ever felt.

"Hakuba snap out of it...!!"

"Nakamori." Hakuba finally stated, slowly picking himself off the carpet into a sitting position. Finally, he reached up his hand and rubbed his cheek, grimacing. Damn that slap still stung.
"Seems like Aoko could knock some sense into you, Hakuba-kun," Kaito smirked at him and yet the halfbrit saw his eyes lacking the usual sparkle. This was a serious situation and the more he returned to his senses, the more he realized this.
"...I know this might not be a best first question, but where exactly are we...?"
"Division 2 headquarters," Aoko stated flatly.

"...Division 2 headquarters...," Hakuba repeated. He did favor to keep his sitting position, still feeling somewhat whoozy in his head.
"Well what happened? We were actually pondering on wether to call you for some help, but I guess you got here faster than even we did." Kaito began once more, crossing his arms. His eyes were clearly not focused on Hakuba but his surroundings, alert to any supposed danger that might be around them.
"What happened... good question..."
Hakuba shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment.
"I came here... because of a case... and the last thing I remember before you slapped me was a voice. I can't tell you for the life of mine what it said, but it was... it was almost vibrating in my brain, it was overshadowing anything else."

Kaito frowned.

A voice?

His gaze flashed to Pandora for just a second and yet, Hakuba seemed to notice.
"You look like you know something I don't."
"Isn't that usually the case?"
"Kuroba this is not the time for jokes."
"Tell me about it," the magician replied grimly, then stretched out his hand to help Hakuba up back onto his legs.
"Did you see Tou-san anywhere? Do you remember anything??" Aoko butted in, somewhat hopeful and yet, Hakuba shook his head.
"Can't say I do."

And while Aoko dove into a conversation with Hakuba, trying to figure out the last bits and pieces his memory could put together, Kaito stepped back for a moment.

A voice.

They were somewhat safe with Pandora in tow. The lad could counter him in every aspect.

But what this meant for them, Kaito could only beg it wasn't what he assumed it to be. And yet, at the same time, Kaito knew it could only mean one thing.

Humanity's hope had escaped his cell.

And it seemed just set on rampaging through this city to find Pandora again.

Kaito swallowed, giving Pandora's hand a gentle squeeze to reassure himself. This was more than people in black suits blazing guns everywhere. This was more than just murder.

This was the work of a god amongst men.

And the others didn't even know about it.